This is an interesting article, but not because it’s a news flash. Former Senator Larry Pressler, a Republican from South Dakota, voted for Obama in 2008 as well. A lot of Republicans voted for Obama that year because they saw disturbing signs that moderate Republicanism was dangerously out of style in today’s party, dominated as it is by the extreme Right.

The importance of this article is not that it reveals “Larry Pressler is voting for Obama”. The importance of this article is, by contrast, that it reveals “Larry Pressler is _still_ voting for Obama”. It’s been four years, and the domination of the Republican Party by the far Right hasn’t changed.

The reasons for moderate Republicans to take a walk on the Democratic side haven’t changed since 2008. Though some were impressed by the faux moderate performance of Romney in the first debate, real moderate Republicans know that the substance still isn’t there, and that the hardcore Right remains in the driver’s seat.

Oh, and there’s one more bit that’s really important in this article – Pressler’s simple outrage that the nation’s veterans are being portrayed by Romney as part of this 47% of the nation that Romney thinks are part of a mooching culture of those dependent on government handouts. Calling those who risked all for their country a bunch of moochers is, indeed, pretty low.